'Black Tuesday' at stock market: Why share prices came crashing down?

Opening on a weak note, the Sensex plunged below the key 34,000-mark in the morning session while the NSE Nifty plunged 390 points within minutes of opening. Nifty too had lost more than 150 points.

Indian markets began reeling after the government presented the budget that focused on populist measures ahead of general elections in 2019. United States stocks plunged in highly volatile trading on Monday, with both the S&P 500 and Dow Industrials indices falling more than 4 per cent.

The US Dow suffered its deepest fall in history, erasing all of its 2018 gains, while the S&P 500 took a beating to sit down for the year yesterday.

What triggered the decline was the United States wage data that was stronger than expected. "There was only minimal disruption on Day 1", said Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia in a tweet.

It's a trip down south for Indian stocks once again, with a sell-off in global markets amid concerns over an imminent interest rate hike in the USA this March hurting sentiment. Following the trend were Asian markets with Japan's Nikkei225 diving 5%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 plummeting 3%, and South Korea's Kospi losing 2.3%.

There was increase in share prices in all sectors, with oil, metal, gas, energy and banking sectors leading the line.

The losses were led by index heavyweight Housing Development Finance Corp, which was trading 3 percent lower. Axis Bank, YES Bank, Adani Ports and Tata Steel declined up to 4.27 percent.

The stock markets had closed in the red for the fifth consecutive session on Monday.

Lloyds Bank bans use of credit cards to buy BitcoinThose banks, in recent days, have announced they will ban their customers from using credit cards to purchase digital currencies. However, similarly to Lloyds , there is little detail from the provider as to how this new policy will be enacted.

Ripple effect: It started in the USA after the Labour Department put out a report on jobs, showing the fastest growth in employment wages in last one decade. But bonds gained as investors sought safe havens. "The sell off in the United States has led to a global sell off", said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services. This isn't a concern that markets aren't going to do well. "We expect the RBI to remain on a pause in this policy".

"Weakness in global equity markets further added to the selling pressure in the Indian markets".

Bitcoin, digital currency plunged over 15 percent on Monday to a three-month low.